“I’m going with you on this operation,” she said.
“And Finder Boskem?” Sonetta asked.
“The finder is recuperating from restorative surgery,” Yajain said. “Apparently it was urgent.”
“He cleared it with me, doctor.” Cava Sogun folded her arms. “Don’t forget his rank.”
“With respect, Tei Officer,” Yajain said, “I haven’t.”
Sogun nodded.
“Prep for takeoff, people. We’re launching at a velocity to arrive in the minimum possible time.”
She led the way onto the tumbler. Yajain and Sonetta buckled across from each other, each one seat from the door. The cablers took the seats closer to the door behind them and belted themselves in. Sogun went with Harish to the front of the tumbler where she restrained herself in a seat just behind the entrance to the cockpit.
The ramp sealed. Solnakite’s bay opened. Yajain looked across the aisle to Sonetta. Familiar vertigo made her stomach lighten sickeningly. They dropped for a whole second, maybe two, before Harish activated the thrusters and they sailed into line with the rest of the tumblers launched from Castenlock, Ebonwing, and Ruane’s Blade.
Cadon settlement grew in the approach viewer over the door. Yajain gazed at slender docking arms and a wide-open side of the pillar where the outer shell had been cut away, much like back on Kaga. The tumbler accelerated and the shapes of pillar-side buildings expanded before her.
Sogun said something to Harish.
The pilot laughed and shouted in reply, “I figure we’ll be quick about this! How tough can it get?”
The homes of the sorai elders on Cadon Sanctuary appeared in better condition than Yajain expected. As a people, the sorai respected their elders the way no others did. Their alliance government before the war based itself on the ascendancy of the old over the young.
Yajain sprinted down the ramp with the rest of the team and Tei Officer Sogun. They crossed a courtyard on the pillar’s open side, where tree limbs formed arches overhead. Her medical bag knocked against her side as she ran.
At the entrance, a pair of guards let the teams inside. Sogun talked to them, getting directions for the team to start removing the elders to the tumblers. They were joined by two relief teams from Ruane’s Blade, mostly young nuinn men, and women. Some of them gave Yajain nervous looks as they passed in the halls of the richly furnished collective care units. From one group she heard mention of Doctor Merrant. Dara.
Surprised but occupied, she helped load elder sorai into lift-chairs or guided wrinkled hands onto float units. For the elders, the appearance of age was a status symbol, not just discomfort. This mission resembled an extraction of thirty or forty ancient monarchs.
Yajain saw Dara herself with the medivac well under way and guessed why the other relief teams seemed so nervous around her. These young medics probably heard of her from the senior biologist. They likely bit their tongues to keep epithets from forming.
What was Dara doing out here?
She finished with moving last elders from her team’s assigned section, then approached Dara, who stood by the entrance of a habitat building.
“You surprised me,” she said. “Isn’t it costing you a fortune just to spend time on this mission?”
Dara smiled as she turned to Yajain.
“I wondered when I’d see you again. Captain Gattri has been quite worried, you know.”
“Don’t make me think about the captain.” Despite her words, Yajain smiled. “If the storm hits before we leave he’ll be more than worried.”
“He’s right.” Dara leaned closer to Yajain and said, “He thinks Ija’s rebel fleet is moving closer, using the storm winds for acceleration.”
“They’ll be fast with a storm that size.”
“And it means they’ll get here first, ahead of the worst of it.”
“Damn,” said Yajain, folding her arms. “Well, we’d better hurry then.”
“Stay safe, Yajain. And remember what we talked about back on Lambri.”
“I’ll consider my career.” Yajain nodded to her friend, then turned toward the tumbler. “Good luck.”
She rejoined her team and headed with them toward Solnakite’s tumbler. The mist craft powered up as the team moved into the courtyard.
Sonetta glanced at the abyssal sky through a gap in the trees.
“Those clouds look awfully close.”
“We’d better hope the rumors of Perdine’s fleet riding the wind aren’t true,” Banedd said.
Ogidar nodded.
Yajain made her way into the tumbler’s cabin. There she buckled in, and the others did the same. Cava Sogun talked to the eight or nine elders on board. Some of the sorai looked nervous, feelers at their brows flexing while those that normally hid in their wrists reached for straps and buckles.
Yajain took a breath as the ramp sealed behind them. So far, so good. A warning light flashed on one wall of the cabin.
Sogun took a communicator and spoke into it.
The hum of acceleration rendered her words as inarticulate noise to Yajain.
The tumbler climbed out of Cadon settlement. Outside the viewer, thunderheads billowed in columns a hundred kilometers high. She clutched the belt stretched across her lap. A pair of sleek white ships rode the wind at the front of the storm. Dozens of smaller vessels cut the air ahead of the larger ships, mostly small corsairs overloaded with weapons.
Missiles streaked from the corsairs toward the settlement and fleeing tumblers. A shock ran through the little ship. Yajain’s stomach jumped. Sonetta’s eyes closed and she repeated a mantra over and over, so low only Yajain directly across from her, and Ogidar at her side likely heard it.
“I’ll get home. I’ll get home. I’ll get home…”
The tumbler rocked again. Lights flickered. A chorus of complaints and murmurs of fear came from the elders at the front of the cabin.
Sogun turned from the comm link she used.
“Remain calm, everyone. Solnakite is closing to pick us up. Harish, go as evasive as you can.”
“Will do, ma’am!”
Out the front viewer, the long, tree-like metal shape of the Castenlock flew into view. Missiles locked onto it. Explosions blossomed along the ship’s hull. Yajain grimaced and hoped the crew would be alright.
Sonetta’s mantra simplified.
“Home. Home. Home…”
Ogidar’s grip on his rifle tensed. Banedd stared at his feet, eyes wide. Old voices with Oscarat accents murmured under the sound of explosions, with no signs of fear.
The tumbler skipped over another blast. Solnakite appeared ahead. A beam shot from one of the near corsairs and scored across the tumbler’s back and top. The light’s flickered. Then the ramp’s in-flight safeguards failed. The door fell open.
A great rush of wind became all Yajain heard. Sonetta screamed, mantra flying out into the abyss. Beyond the pillar’s arc, in a ship with no core, arc lifts became useless.
Must not fall.
Yajain clung to her seatbelt as backup circuitry failed. Her stomach seethed. Sonetta’s scream died away. Ogidar clamped his hand to Sonetta’s wrist. Staring out the open rear of the tumbler, Yajain felt Banedd’s hand on her arm. She tasted bile and fear.
Solnakite’s tethers caught the tumbler about the midsection as a beam shot from the weapon on the ship’s back to slash a pursuing corsair across the nose. Yajain held on and closed her eyes.
The tumbler jumped meters into Solnakite’s bay. Harish swore as the bay doors closed under them with a clang, tossing the ramp into the air. It swung and smashed into the back of the tumbler.
Reverberations ran through the tumbler. One of the elders clutched at his chest with a wrinkled hand. His face turned pale and he gasped for air. Yajain unbuckled her seatbelt but fell to her knees, nauseated. Sonetta somehow stood before her, steadied by Ogidar’s arm.
“That man,” Yajain said. “He’s having some kind
of attack.”
Sonetta wobbled down the aisle and unbuckled the old man from his seat. She checked his breathing as Yajain watched. Sonetta kept calm somehow, and even more amazingly, didn’t seem too rattled by the near miss on the tumbler to act.
Yajain pushed herself against her seat. The ramp crashed to the deck as the lights in the tumbler went out.
“Everybody exit,” Sogun said. “As quickly as we can.”
The elders who’d been locked into their seats over the course of the last few hours protested. A message from the speakers in the launch bay echoed through the tumbler’s open door.
“This is Captain Ettasil. Everyone, hold on for immediate transit.”
Transit down the corridor between Toraxas and Shaull took half the time of their last major transit, no more than four hours. In the darkened tumbler, holding to her seat with the ship shaking the whole while, to Yajain it seemed much longer.
The chatter exchanged by Sogun and the captain by radio broke down to only occasional snatches of words. Deceleration thrusters fired. Solnakite began to slow.
Transit speed gave way to conventional velocity. Yajain stood, wary of further chaotic motion. Sonetta looked at her from where she had stayed beside the old man in the aisle during transit. She gave Yajain a tired smile. Yajain smiled back, despite how sick the hours of transit left her.
She walked unsteadily to the ramp, felt it with her boot toes to keep from slipping or risking a fall. After being knocked free in flight, it seemed no less stable than usual in the bay. Yajain motioned to the others.
“It’s safe.”
Hopefully, everyone else escaped too. All these refugees could slow the mission down going forward if they stayed on board. Forget about relocating them.
Yajain stretched her back and legs.
Sonetta helped the elder who’d suffered the attack to the ramp.
When they passed Yajain, she said, “Good thing you saw him. It was a panic attack. Could have been serious if I hadn’t gotten him his emergency meds.”
"Glad I could help. You handled the tougher part.”
Yajain and the others helped the other elders out of the tumbler over the next hour.
Yajain left the docking bay, walking past a pair of ratings scrambling to work on the bay doors and check the tumbler’s ramp. On the middle deck, she encountered Captain Ettasil moving the opposite direction. The pale-faced captain waved off the bridge rating that had been following him down the corridor.
“Doctor Aksari. I’m glad you’re alright.”
“I hope Dara and the others had as much luck,” Yajain said.
Ettasil frowned when he heard Dara’s name.
“Yes, of course.” He sighed. Sweat beaded at his brows. “We’ve been connected to Castenlock. It seems all their tumblers returned, though some were damaged.”
Yajain nodded.
“That’s good to hear captain.”
“Our lack of casualties are about the only good news,” said the captain. “We don’t have a very good idea how far we went down the corridor.” Sweat dripped from Ettasil’s cheek and formed a darkened spot near his uniform’s stiff collar. “We don’t know where Ruane’s Blade is yet, even in relation to our other ships. Captain Gattri received their transit signal before we left.”
“So we know they escaped?” Yajain said.
“Most likely.”
“I’m glad.”
The captain turned from Yajain to the sputtering bridge rating.
“Rating Habrosh, don’t just stand there. Go back to the bridge and await relay from Habandra. We need to know where we are.”
“But that could take days, captain.”
Ettasil mopped his brow with a hand towel.
“Then we’d better waste no time.”
Habrosh scurried off. Ettasil turned to Yajain.
“Firio, err, Captain Gattri is worried. His daughter is acting as Tei Officer of Ruane’s Blade.”
“Jania would get into this kind of trouble.” Yajain shook her head.
“I thought because you were on better terms with Captain Gattri, you might accompany me to Castenlock. My Tei Officer is needed here. Ideally, I would stay as well, but he has summoned me, and Captain Bakanta from Ebonwing.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea, sir?” Yajain said. “There could be wounded.”
“If everyone on the tumbler is in one piece, Officer Narayme can handle it.” His tone carried force for once. “Understood?”
“Alright, sir.”
Yajain sat, out of place with the fleet’s three captains and the Finder who’d joined the Ebonwing, and the Empress’s Agent, RO Agan Pansar in the conference room of Castenlock. Gathered in a ring, they waited as the Habandra Explorator relayed the holographic map of the region to a projector on the inner edge of the table. The map formed a chunk at a time and quickly made obvious they had entered the Shaull Cluster.
The pillars of Shaull were famously dark gray stone. A particular set of three confirmed Yajain’s suspicion of their location. Three pillars clustered so close as to create a dense verge several thousand kilometers from where Castenlock hovered.
Those three pillars and the immense amount of plant growth between them made up Shaull’s famed Bahami Forest, yet no sign presented itself of a hub settlement for the corridor toward Toraxas. The fleet probably overshot the end of the corridor completely.
We’re lucky to be alive, Yajain thought with a shudder, imagining ships dashed against the sides of unyielding pillars.
Captain Firio Gattri raised his gaze from his reading pad. The window behind him showed only white mist and a few gray stone shells, dimly lit in shades of yellow and white. Firio nodded to Pansar. The imperial agent nodded back.
Firio pushed back his chair and stood up.
“We need information, people. Habandra is sending us information as fast as they can but there’s no telling how long it will take to get a comprehensive scan at our distance from home.” He turned to Captains Ettasil and Bakanta, near where Yajain sat beside Ebonwing’s Finder, whose name she didn’t know. “Castenlock’s core is depleted for the time being. We barely have maneuvers, so your rangers are our best option for searching for our lost ship.”
“With all due respect, Captain,” said Pansar. “Two rangers have little chance of finding another small craft before Habandra locates it for us.”
“How long will that take, Agent Pansar?” Firio growled. “A day? Two days? If Ruane’s Blade is damaged as badly as they appeared to be just before transit they will need help.”
Pansar leaned back in his seat.
“Captain, Castenlock and our remaining rangers have over seventeen hundred civilians aboard. Should we risk endangering them for perhaps a dozen more and a small crew?”
“You are not familiar with fleet doctrine, Agent Pansar.” Firio paced to the window and looked out. He raised his voice. “In the event of a loss of contact with other elements the Fleet Captain is advised that losses should always be minimized where possible, both ships, and lives.”
“Those rebels could follow us by transit,” Pansar said. “The risk is too great.”
A series of map sections came to life, showing storm clouds large enough to hide whole pillars. Those clouds swept across the expanses not far from the fleet’s position. Yajain glanced at Pansar.
“With respect, the storm is going to strike before any rebels reach us. And when it does a search will be impossible.”
Pansar raised his eyebrows.
“The doctor has a point. Why risk losing both our remaining escorts for the third? Granted they have mission-important passengers, but the doctrine is flexible from the sound of it. Don’t give in to sentiment, Captain Gattri. We must all act logically.”
Putting logic first made up the central commandments of Dilinia’s Lucid Assembly.
“I don’t belong to your cult,” Firio said. “You keep reminding me why.”
“Captain Gattri, we must take action. Storm or rebels, we cannot stay here.”
“I am in command of this fleet’s rescue operations, until such time as the Empress removes that duty from me.” Firio turned to Bakanta. “Captain Bakanta, you and Captain Ettasil should take your ships and search along the transit route for Ruane’s Blade. I will take Castenlock and shelter in the lee of Baham forest. The storm will take several hours to break our communications, but keep chatter to a minimum. Good luck.”
“Thank you, captain,” Bakanta said.
Ettasil nodded.
“Orders understood.”
“Good.” Firio’s dark eyes flashed. “Move out, people.”
Solnakite cut through dark air between pillars where little light broke the clouds. Echo scans and mapping lights flared from the hull. Occasionally they received alerts from detecting rare scanners, cousins of the solnas, or from the form of Ebonwing flying parallel to them, some thousand kilometers away.
The two ships combed the flight path, darting between pillars. Yajain waited in the watchroom with Sonetta and Banedd. They’d given the sorai elders their cabins and the offices for rest.
The three kept each other awake and ready with steaming caffeinated drinks and a little conversation. An hour into the search, word came down over the radio.
“Rescue team to tumbler bay. We have Ruane’s Blade on visual.”
The team exchanged glances, but only Sonetta looked truly relieved. Banedd grimaced and shouldered the bag containing his gear.
“I’ll see you ladies down there.”
“What’s wrong with him?” Sonetta asked. “We found them.”
“He seems nervous,” Yajain said.
“Well, we’re gonna get this done right. For once I want to rescue someone and not need rescuing too.”
Yajain smiled at Sonetta.
Storm Fleet Page 9